FIRST of all they embraced Gadaffi like a long lost brother in 2004, just one year after the mass slaughter in Iraq.
The 2004 deal-manoeuvre was carried out by the butcher of Iraq, Tony Blair. Gadaffi presumed it was a permanent arrangement. Libyan oil resources were opened up to BP and other large companies, while Libya obligingly gave up its weapons of mass destruction, and opened up the country and elements in the regime to be softened up by imperialism and its agencies.
Then, after the revolutionary wave erupted and spread from Algeria to Tunisia, before hopping over Libya to Egypt, perfidious Albion and French imperialism worked out that an opportunity had presented itself that could not be ignored for launching an uprising and regime change in Libya. This would remove Gadaffi, and grab Libya’s oil, under the cover of ‘the defence of human rights’. So friend Gadaffi became the ‘mad dog’ again!
This same human rights banner was not extended to the people of Bahrain and the Yemen who wished to see regime change, and dump imperialist puppets. These allies of imperialism continued to be supported. They were allowed to kill as they pleased.
In the heady early days of the Libyan ‘revolt’, when Cameron and Sarkozy thought they would be in Tripoli in days, the sky was the limit.
The French were encouraged to do the same in the Cote d’Ivoire and the feverish brains of the imperialist leaders envisioned thoughts of a super-exploitation of Africa and its riches that would revive European imperialism.
However, within days there was a rapid mood swing when Gadaffi’s forces swept the counter-revolutionaries back to the gates of Benghazi.
The city and the cause of the Libyan counter-revolution were saved by the Russian and Chinese Stalinists refusing to veto a resolution in the UN Security Council. This allowed the British and French airforces to become the air-arm of the counter-revolution.
Thus the day was saved as far as Benghazi was concerned, but the counter-revolution was unable to advance westwards, regardless of the air support that it was receiving.
Anglo-French imperialism is now too far in to admit defeat and is unable to get out without NATO being fatally undermined.
Their way out is to deepen the intervention! The ground is now being laid with horror stories about the use, by Gadaffi’s forces, of cluster bombs (over a million were used in Iraq) to usher in a ground war.
The first step has already been taken, with the declaration by the ‘Big Three’ dwarfs, Obama, Cameron and Sarkozy, that hostilities will continue until the Gadaffi regime is smashed.
The next step has emerged with the Tory General Dannatt’s demand that the ‘rebel forces’ be armed and trained by special forces so that they can advance to Tripoli with NATO air forces clearing the way, no doubt with cluster bombs.
Propagandists for this course are stressing that having got in this far, imperialism cannot run away and expect any other response than the price of oil doubling or trebling.
When parliament reassembles, it will be informed that the ‘Libyan heroes’ in Benghazi are to be armed by Qatar and trained by the UK and France to march on Tripoli, with military ‘trainers’ assisting them.
We are on the brink of a serious expansion of the Libyan war, that will spread throughout the whole of north and west Africa.
Millions will flock to the Gadaffi banner to prevent the imperialists taking over Libya, and north and western Africa, which are the resource-rich areas that are being immediately targeted.
At home, this expansion of the war will mean inevitably an escalating military budget, and that more hospitals and schools will close, while at the same time basic rights come under heavy attack, since it will require conditions of dictatorship to fight such an unpopular war.
This moment is therefore the moment of truth for the UK and French workers and for the workers of the world.
Our principles are clear. The UK workers are in the same trench as the Libyan and African workers.
The enemy is at home and the victory of the Libyan people will be our victory and vice versa.
